Gary Rankin On Cusp Of Being State's Winningest Coach

Alcoa Head Football Coach Gary Rankin says he never got into coaching football for the longevity and for a ton of wins.

That's hard to believe him as you look at all the success, the legendary coach has had over his coaching career that has spun over 35 years.

Rankin isn't a coach that wants the individual attention rather he takes tremendous pride in what his teams over the years have accomplished.

In his 30 years as a head football coach at three different schools (Smith County, Riverdale and Alcoa), Rankin's teams have won 10 state titles and have made 14 title game appearances.

Now, because of all his success, he is only 13 wins away from becoming the state's all time winningest coach, which is the Trinity of coaching records.

His overall coaching record of 356-69 is just behind legendary Memphis area coach Ken Netherland, who retired last season, recently the state has mourned Netherland's passing away.

"Coach Netherland was a great coach with a very sharp football mind," Rankin said. "To be in the conversation as a top coach with a guy like him is very humbling."

"When I came back home to Carthage to take over the Smith County job in 1983, I didn't really think about what my career would look like down the road," Rankin continued.

"I had been away from home for about 10 years and my wife and I wanted to come back home and get closer to our families."

After suffering through his worst season in his career as the Owls went 0-10 in 1983, Rankin's teams turned it around.

The Owls made the playoffs six of his eight years in Carthage including back to back undefeated regular seasons in 1988 and 1989 as he finished with a 58-32 record at Smith County.

In 1990, Rankin moved to Murfreesboro and took over a down trodden Riverdale program.

It was at Riverdale, where Rankin found great success as the Warrior program became the team to beat at the Class 5A level for years to come.

In his 16 years of leading the program, Riverdale made eight 5A title game appearances winning four times (1994, 1997, 2001 and 2004).

Riverdale complied a 194-25 record during the Rankin years which also included three undefeated seasons and 15 playoff appearances as well.

"I've been very fortunate in my coaching career to have some great administrators that allowed me the freedom to go out and being in some great assistant coaches to coach some good kids."

He then moved to Alcoa in 2006 and continued his success as the Tornadoes under Rankin's direction have won (six state titles in eight years) three in 2A in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and three in 3A in 2009, 2010 and 2013.

Rankin's Tornadoes are the defending Class 3A state champions and carry a 13 game winning streak into the 2014 season which kicks off on Thursday night as Alcoa hosts Smith County.

Two days later, the Tornadoes will be in action again as they travel to Morristown East as they will play two games in three days.

Tennessee is home to a lot of successful coaches who have been coaching for long periods of time.

Below is a Top 50 list of active coaches with the most wins in the state followed by a top 50 list of coaching records by winning percentage.

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Donovan Stewart is a freelance writer that is based in Murfreesboro, TN. He has won several TSWA awards and has a weekly prep football column that publishes across the state as well as a weekly appearance on 96.5 WBFG ESPN Radio discussing high school sports. He is a husband to Kristi and father of three beautiful children, one girl Kyla age nine and twin 1two and a half year-old boys Konner and Kohl. Contact Donovan at donovan.stewart@bellsouth.net with your comments and questions.